Middle-earth: Shadow of War First Hands-on Impressions

Once more unto the breach, dear friends.

By
Brandin Tyrrel

We spent a lot of time talking about Shadow of War last month. We covered everything from the return of Monolith’s Nemesis System, to the new enemies, skills, and gear during our Shadow of War IGN First, and so much more. And even with our deep dives into the many systems that will power Shadow of War when it launches August 22, there’s no substitute for getting your hands dirty with good old-fashioned gameplay.

Fortunately, for the 30 minutes I spent sieging an Orc-ruled fortress with varying success, I’m happy to say Shadow of War feels like an improvement on its predecessor in every way.

The demo I played was restricted to a siege fortress, which admittedly doesn’t speak to all the new open-world content, but was surprisingly dense with options, strategies, and flaming, bloody chaos.

For starters, I died in my first attempt. I mention that because one of the criticisms many folks found in the first game was its difficulty tapered off as Talion grew in power from freshly dead ranger to leather-clad superhero. And I wasn’t screwing around. As soon as the battle started I climbed up onto one of the artillery siege beasts I brought with me, and took control of its catapult in order to pepper the main gate with flaming payloads.

Almost immediately we caught return fire from the fortress artillery, and in a loud, fiery explosion, the siege weapon on its back was destroyed. But, and this is my favorite part, I was still mounted and used this massive Graug to climb the walls of the fort like King Kong grappled his way up a skyscraper. We ate some orcs, got into a fist fight with the enemy siege beast that crippled us to begin with, and out of nowhere a fireball from an overhead neutral drake landed squarely on my head. And that was that: I died, we lost, and it was on to take two.

I used this massive Graug to climb the walls of the fort like King Kong grappled his way up a skyscraper.

I actually appreciate that I died, because it let me try out some of the tactics you can bring with you from the siege screen. Knowing this time that the fortress was owned by the Feral tribe - which specializes in beasts and spear throwing hunters - I bought and added to my ranks the stronger Ravager Hunters to help control those beasts. I switched my artillery from fire to poison projectiles this time and purchased a squad of attack trolls to rush the gate and act as living battering rams. And though the neutral drake I purchased the first time ended up killing me, I bought it again just in the hopes I’d be able to eventually dominate and ride it during the assault. Though I have to admit, I almost swapped him out for the Poisonous Spiders option that sends a small army of arachnids into the fortress to bite and murder your enemies.

This time around I went for a straightforward approach. I warped up to the ramparts, took out as many archers as I could, and headed for the objectives. Actually fighting the army of orcs on the walls and in the courtyards felt comfortable. I’ll admit I played Shadow of Mordor recently to shake off the cobwebs, but the fighting system is as familiar and accessible as ever, yet now more involved.

There are a ton more abilities to use, like the ghostly wraith glaive that lets you rip through thick groups of Uruks with greater reach and wider arc than your sword allows. But the gameplay is very much that balance of using your abilities to drain and dominate your enemies while saving charged up skills for captains and warlords. Multiple times I was left scrambling, running circles around a warlord and his three captain bodyguards while trying to stay alive long enough for my forces to whittle down their numbers, or distract them so I could replenish health by draining an Uruk somewhere safe.

Eventually, after clearing and capturing the three control points, I made my way into the Overlord’s throne room. Since he was of the Feral tribe, he had his pet Calagor sitting by his side. I immediately spent all my arrows shooting that big monster in the face over and over until it fell over dead, which put me at a disadvantage, but was well worth not having the hassle of dodging that thing the whole fight.

I immediately spent all my arrows shooting that big monster in the face.

Supposedly, this bone-covered Overlord was the hardest of the bunch, or so I was told - every demo station had a different encounter with a randomly selected Overlord and tribe - though I don’t know if that was just an attempt to make me feel better for running for my life.

If that was true, I can understand why. This was easily the hardest fight in my demo (and main bosses not included) probably in Shadow of Mordor as well. The overlord was immune to arrows, which meant all that bow-warping wizardry that makes Talion so mobile was mostly ineffective. On top of that, he enraged immediately for reasons I still don’t know, and proceeded to rally the room full of Uruks and Ologs into a ridiculously effective mob of anger and axes.

There was so much going on that I had to dance around the room, slicing and cutting at orcs where I could, and tumbling over their heads. But I was surprised when after I had vaulted over the overlord a few times, the next time I tried to do it, he pushed me off. Big letters appeared on screen saying the overlord had adapted. During the fight, he learned my tactics, and became immune to them. Every time thereafter he’d throw me to the ground with each vault attempt. These fights grow in difficulty the longer they go. He adapted to my wraith stun ability shortly afterward.

In the end, the constant stream of orcs and trolls pouring into the room gave me enough fodder to build up execution chains and whittle him down, but I nearly died three or four times just trying to get in and out of his range. Ultimately, I left the encounter feeling incredibly satisfied with what I’d accomplished.

Even from a brief half-hour of hands-on time with Shadow of War, I’m excited to really get into the meat of all the possibilities still waiting to be discovered. The exploding walls and chaos that erupts as soon as the fight begins is an excellent precursor to the tactically difficult fights against groups of captains and warlords, and eventually the overlord himself. All these tools can be used for, or against you, and I’m eager to see what else Monolith is going to throw at us next in Shadow of War, and what we’ll be able to throw back.

Brandin Tyrrel is an Editor at IGN who just recently watched the Lord of the Rings extended edition trilogy again. He's super ready for more Middle-earth and you can find him on Twitter at @BrandinTyrrel.